Heavyweight banker joins Corestate company

Marcel Crommen, a former head of real estate investment banking in Germany at Deutsche Bank, has joined Alta Fides, a portfolio company of Swiss-based Corestate Capital.

Marcel Crommen has joined the board of German student accommodation firm Alta Fides which was taken over last year by Swiss-based private equity real estate firm, Corestate Capital.

Crommen is a seasoned real estate investment banker who has held senior positions in Europe with Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. He left Deutsche Bank in 2006 where he headed up the German real estate investment banking team to join Citigroup in an expanded role. Past deals he has been involved with include the sale of German housing and real estate firm Viterra in 2005 for €7 billion to Deutsche Annington.

He has joined Stuttgart-based Alta Fides in order to implement the firm’s business strategy along with fellow board member Rudolph Bartsch, said the firm today. Alta Fides is currently being reorganised around its YOUNIQ Student Living business having been taken over by Gemany-focused Corestate Capital last year. Former board member Jan Giessler resigned from the position in charge of strategic and operational implementation yesterday by mutual consent.

Under the Youniq brand, Alta Fides develops, sells, and operates properties for students. There are three existing properties in Greifswald, Leipzig, and Erlangen with a total of 500 housing units between them. Other projects are close to the start of construction, or are in the detailed planning stage. In 2009 and 2010, Corestate Capital will invest €200 million in the business, with further capital to be injected in following years.